Welcome Home and Farewell -In Less Than 24 Hours

This pictures does not count in the 24 hours, but 1 day before Katelyn got home, we realized that we had not taken any Mission Pictures, so we ran over to the temple with Annalisa in her mission clothes and got it done.

Let's go back a little to when Annalisa got her mission call.  To our surprise, she was called to the Carlsbad California Mission on February 10 reporting to the MTC at 1:00pm, which is the exact same date that Sister Katelyn Jones was coming home at 2:50pm.  We had to be in two places at once.  We tried to figure out a plan so that they could see each other and that we could give both of them their special moment.  Finally the MTC reluctantly agreed to allow Annalisa to go to the MTC the next morning, which would be February 11.
With  Katelyn flying in at 2:50pm we had everything scheduled perfectly.  As the day went on it looked like Katelyn was going to be delayed, so everything else would probably be delayed as well.  While we waited and the cute Hermansens came by at around 3:00pm to surprise us with a sign, but we were home. They put it up anyway. Finally we went to the airport around 5:30pm. Her flight then came early and we barely got there in time. It was so great to see our missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

We came home and she had two signs welcoming her home.  One of the signs was for Kate and Anna.

 This is her first steps into our house after being gone for over 18 months.

We had scheduled to take a family picture at 4:30pm, but since that time had come and gone we had to do a nighttime sitting. This was the last time that Katelyn, Annalisa and Kyle will be together for 2 1/2 years. So we took it even in the dark. Thanks Michelle! Every kid got a picture with Anna and the three missionaries got one together as well. Kyle won't go until after July.

 This was our best family picture.  Katelyn was such a good sport for someone that just got home.  It is a good thing that missionaries learn patience.

 

 At 9:30pm we went to President Stevens office to have Anna get set apart and Kate get released. We had originally planned to do that at 5:30pm, but we had to change it because of the flight delays. President Stevens stayed until after his meeting, so it was around 9:30pm. It was precious to all be together for that. We had two missionaries for a few minutes. We brought Annalisa a tag and she was set apart before Katelyn was released.

Then we woke up at 3:00am and drove to Provo. Katelyn and Anna had plenty of time to catch up. We dropped our little missionary off before class started. We got in the standby line and went to the Provo City Center temple and went home, since our Returned missionary had only been home for about 14 hours. We were pretty wiped.